The Yin/Yang of art and life. . .

La Recolte de Champignons  .  14" x 11"  .  oil on linen covered panel

Having just completed four landscapes, I was itching to get back to something figurative or portrait like.  There's a real fear behind that itch and it's definitely in the driver's seat: "What if I can't paint a likeness anymore, or have lost some ingredient that goes into painting the human form?" my inner voice says.  Fear and doubt (F&D) are constant companions of most of the artists I know and my monkey brain always loves the party of F&D.  This "balance" of switching between subject matter is surely part of the Yin/Yang energy.  The subject matter is totally different, quite opposite, but for me they are interdependent.  One cannot exist without the other. 

Naturally this breaks the long established rule in the art world that if you want to be a success you have to settle on one "style" or subject and repeat, repeat, repeat.  Speaking for myself, I need the dynamic flow between subject matter to continuously feed each other - re-balance my impulses, my brushwork, my intent, my palette.  I find it endlessly challenging and though the subject matter is separate, it also ends up being equal as in equally satisfying.  One brings knowledge and knowing to the other. . .the painting flows and there is harmony.  A beautiful word, eh?  Harmony.

I could talk about the "impostor syndrome" but that would simply be too much on this rainy day - suffice to say there can be many potholes on the way to creating art! 

Finding balance and that important harmony between life and work produced the naming of the above new painting.- recently I took time off from work and spent some quality hours at an extended lunch with a friend from my Florida days.  This painting is special to her and she will soon hang it in her beautiful home. I asked her to name it, hence "The Mushroom Harvest" written in French, as this portrays a young French man doing just that.  Her connection to France is deep and filled with love spanning decades now - this painting will remind her of that connection and I hope bring a smile to her generous heart.  Thank you SPP for all.  

Birds are singing while a gentle rain falls on the blooming azaleas and lavender rhododendron out my studio window; this after a couple of windy dry days.  Balance.  Yin/Yang.   

"Physics depends on a universe infinitely centered on an equals sign."

~ Mark Z. Danielewski